436 EARLIER INDIAN SPEECHES
side by side as comrades. Unless the educated classes or the * elite ' of the community take the lead, it is idle to expect the other classes to come forward. I believe that those from the educated classes are above the prescribed age, but are able-bodied, may enlist them- selves. Their services will be utilised, if not for actual fighting, for many other purposes accessory thereto, and for treating and nursing the sepoys. I hope also that those who have grown-up sons will not hesitate to send them as recruits. To sacrifice sons in the war ought to be a cause not of pain, but of pleasure to brave men. Sacrifice of sons at the crisis will be sacrifice for Swaraj ya.
To you, my sisters, I request that you will not be startled by this appeal, but will accord it a hearty welcome. It contains the key to your protection and your honour.
There are 600 villages in the Kaira District. Every village has on an average a population of over 1,000. If every village gave at least twenty men the men. The population of the whole district is seven lakhs and this number will then work out at 17 per c ent. a ra te which is lower than the death-rate. If we are not prepared to make even this sacrifice for the Empire and Swarajya, it is no wonder if we are regard- ed as unworthy of it. If every village gives at least twenty men thsy will return from the war and be the living bulwarks of their village. If they fall on the battle-field, they will immortalise themselves, their villages and their country, and twenty fresh men will follow suit and offer themselves for national defence.
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